Amelia Molly Zelko, 47, vanished after leaving the Joliet Spectator office about 11:30 p.m. on September 25, 1957. She was on a three-minute drive to her apartment on Buell Avenue and was reported in good spirits by co-workers. When she failed to arrive the next morning, police were called.

Her car was parked in its usual spot outside the apartment with the keys under the front seat. The only personal items found were her shoes — one on the car trunk and one on the ground nearby. Neighbors later said they heard screams and a car speeding away between midnight and 12:15 a.m., though those sounds were dismissed at the time. No sign of a struggle was found in the home and there is no evidence she made it inside that night.

Zelko and partner William R. McCabe had run the Joliet Spectator and pursued stories on political corruption, gambling, and organized crime; the paper had faced violent retaliation previously. Leads over the years included a 1978 witness claim of men burying a woman in a storm sewer ditch near her home and searches tied to a Senate probe into organized crime, but no trace of Molly has been found. If anyone knew Molly, her routines, or saw anything in Joliet that night, please share information.